National Business Incubation Association

Southern African Business & Technology Incubation Association

Shanghai International Technology Transfer Information Platform

About Us

TBIF aspires to become the most outstanding incubation facility in the region.

MISSION

To stimulate new business developments and growth of enterprises into successful, well structured, well managed, fully productive enterprises for the benefit of all in Rwanda.

CORE VALUES

These specific objectives are governed by a set of core values which safe guard the integrity, relevance and rationality of the TBIF. The core values which TBIF must observe as follows:
1. commitment to entrepreneurial knowledge’s and skills;
2. Promotion of entrepreneurship culture;
3. Innovation, life long learning, networking among cluster members, with TBIF staff clients/ tenants and the private sector at large;
4. Respect for roles and mandate of key stakeholders, avoiding conflicts of interest;
5. Commitment to gender, unity and reconciliation among the Rwandan community;
6. Learning through experience
7. Networking with other service providers through alliances and partnerships;
8. Transparency and equitable selection criteria;
9. Fair and impartial entry and exit criteria;
10. Commitment to integration of science and technology into business activities.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND DIRECTION

The overall objective of the TBIF is to facilitate development of Rwanda through improvement of entrepreneurial skills and wealth creation. In fulfilling the overall objective TBIF lays a number of specific strategic objectives and defines the steps towards achieving them as depicted in the table below:

No.	Objective	Strategy/Target
1	Increase success rate of SMEs in Rwanda	a) Focus on business incubation as a core business; b) Establish minimum training requirement; c) Develop partnerships with successful incubators; d) Develop and refine entry and exit criteria.
2	Enhance TBIF capacity to deliver quality services	a) Develop incubator infrastructure to cope with increases for services; b) Operate a regular training program for TBIF staff; c) Develop a well defined incubator management strategy.
3	Increase accessibility and utility of technologies and management support to SMEs	a) Establish mechanisms to ensure knowledge and implementation ,and undertake critical evaluation on an ongoing basis; b) Leverage international expertise in technology incubation; c) Provide mentoring and networking support to SMEs business.
4	Improve access to finance for TBIF Tenants / Clients	a) Define financing models for different stages of incubation; b) Establish funding intermediation of financial institutions in the incubator funding.
5	Enhance self- sustainability	a) Define a model according to which tenants will be charged for services; b) Develop a funding process for start-ups including facilitation of access to public and venture funds.
6	Improve the entrepreneurial culture in Rwanda	a) Intensify training in business issues; b) Intensify campaigns to improve awareness
7	Increase the TBIF network	a) Define promotional strategy to give maximum of exposure; b) Encourage new ventures from diverse backgrounds as possible; c) Raise awareness about new incubation opportunities and to join private associations/clubs; d) Hold annual stakeholder conferences.

To contribute towards creation of new enterprises, TBIF is focusing on graduates from universities and institutions of higher learning. This particular segment, because of their education background in technologies and management and is in a good position to integrate new technologies necessary for competitiveness in other sectors.

TBIF tenants will be selected in line with creating cluster businesses, particularly in the areas of appropriates technologies and agribusiness in order to reap economies of scale. Business that cannot join any of the clusters will be supported as clients outside the TBIF walls. It is expected that different entry criteria will be developed for pre- incubation of tenants within the TBIF facilities and TBIF clients outside the TBIF walls. The current project of two years is seen as a pilot project. The project will be subjected to two reviews. During the interview and final evaluation, entry criteria will be assessed and improvements suggested. Currently the main objective is to help potential entrepreneurs with the best chance of success. For that reason the entry criteria for the first group of tenants will mainly be on business idea, character of the entrepreneur, quality and presentation of the business plan, and emphasis on improvement of women and young entrepreneurs, with high scores for science and technology businesses.